Fantastic weekend

This weekend my best friend, Emily, came to visit and boy did we have fun! She arrived late Friday night so we just hung out, catching up over a bottle (or two) of wine and blabbering non-stop about everything horsey. Poor Dan, he was a good sport sitting there listening to us; the horse-speak floodgates were opened and I'm sure he would rather have talked about anything else.

On Saturday morning we went to the Haycreek Festival, a harvest fair at local historic mill. There were all kinds of crafts, antique machinery and cars, and demos of glassblowing, blacksmithing, weaving, knitting, etc. 

An old hay baler

Glass blowing demonstration

Woodworking

Blacksmith

They had one contraption that was especially cool where a pony would walk on an elevated treadmill which then ran a machine that separated and bound straw. Neat! 

Pony power!

After spending a few hours there we went to my favorite ice cream place ever, Lapp Valley Farm. It is a Mennonite milk farm that makes all their own ice cream (and waffle cones) and it is to die for. One of the biggest attractions, though, is that you can walk around the farm and visit with all the animals, including baby cows :)

Our next stop was at Equestrian International tack store for a special bit Emily was picking up for one of her friends back home in Maryland, then we were finally off to the barn.

Since Charlie still doesn't have a shoe we started with a short warm-up ride with him (in a boot) and Gi. Emily started out on Gi, bareback (which was pretty funny since she is so tall) and then we switched so she could try Charlie. We only went around my development but the horses were so good and we had a ton of fun. Emily couldn't stop giggling while she was on Gi....she even got to experience his tolt!

Emily and Gi

Off we go!

Chatting with my mom

That's a more appropriate size match :)

We returned those two to their barn and then hoped over to Kate M.'s house to take Buffy and Poppy on a real ride. I had decided to take one of the back roads routes my mom and Kate often travel with those two horses and let me tell you, they definitely knew the way! They were both a dream to ride and we had so much fun, galloping down the straight-aways and then relaxing and taking in the scenery. We were probably out for a good hour before we had to return for dinner.

While we were out we saw someone taking a trotter out on the roads for race training, which was pretty cool. They breezed by but must have circled around because as we came around one turn near home there they were, passing a team of Amish plow horses. What a sight :)  All we were missing was a buggy!

The horses were fascinated

On Sunday we went out to breakfast and then to Equine Exchange, a favorite consignment store of mine. I wasn't shopping but Emily found a beautiful brand new FITS show shirt for $30 (reg $120) as well as several other items. We we originally planning on riding but we honestly spent way too much time shopping. Honest mistake :P 

We're already busy planning our ride for next time Emily visits, which hopefully won't be too long in the future. Maybe sometime before her wedding in October. And that time I'll make sure Charlie will be ready for action :)